2007/01/12

Jacqueline and Heinz were aboard Soli last evening, we were having nice sundowners and munchies when Carlos apears wearing BOOTS and announces "we have a rat on board!!! "....

That was exciting...David is flipping through cruising books, I, of course, am Googling and finding a picture of the cutest rat walking along a rope ... Jacqueline asks if she can sleep on board Soli tonight and Heinz continues eating guacamole and finishes his rum punch calmly... as if this was an every day occurence...

The only thing to do of course was to catch him.... and I must say the marina was very helpful, they found a couple of traps which they gave to H&J to be baited with pieces of tomato...apparently rats LOVE tomato seeds (Heinz recalled reading that somewhere)...

Hoping this was going to work rapidly, the three of them came back to Soli for more rum punch...but after a while the rat was still not caught, so they decided too go home and make pizza... Jacqueline, after the initial shock, was really amazingly brave...

Eventually, the rat could not resist the lure of the tomato and got trapped...this kind of trap is actually a sort of board with an extremely sticky surface and the rat just got stuck to it... poor little thing...

Heinz caught him by the neck but as he was in the process of putting him in a bag the rat bit his left hand... so off to the doctor they went to have it all cleaned up...and that was the story of the rat..... I had asked to take a picture of it, as I was sure you would all be dying to see it, but the rat in the bag was taken to the doctor and I never even saw it ...

Today was laundry day...which is quite a social occasion... all the women (and some men) gather in the laundry room and juggle time and turns with the machines.

Then I came home and made a big batch of spaghetti sauce bolognese.

David and I ran for a quick walk on the beach....

At 1600 we were invited to "The Manager's Cocktail party" at the straw bar on the beach.... Jacqueline and I sprayed ourselves to guard against the horrid little noseeums (they have been much better lately because it has been very windy) .

Jacqueline's legs look as if the "Q" (quarantine) flag should go up again on L'Equipe...mine are not much better!!!

We were treated to delicious rum punch and food and I mean wonderful food, duck, shrimps, smoked salmon and conch fritters while a local band was entertaining us ...

The chef had all the right moves in the kitchen and on the dance floor!!!

Eventually H&J had to leave as Heinz was going to get a tetanus shot.

So we walked by John Travolta's house.... he only comes here a couple of times a year... wonder if he would lend the use of it to some friends like for a honeymoon for instance!!!

As you can see, the life of a cruiser is seldom boring... one day you are in the rat patrol and the next a beach bum/party animal..... wonder what tomorrow will bring?

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Looks totally amazing! Don't fancy either the rat or the little biting bugs but quite fancy John Travolta's house though! At last we are seeing the sun in Salisbury so don't have to be so envious!